Skills
If we are to have any chance of making the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy, the UK workforce urgently requires new skills. And although useful, new technical skills will not by themselves be sufficient. Some of the most important capabilities we need to foster are critical thinking, systems thinking, and the ability to envision a brighter, more sustainable future, and lead others towards that goal.
We would like to see...
In the face of challenges like climate change, global poverty, technological change and demographic shifts, our capacity as a nation to learn, and keep on learning, will be a defining feature of our competitiveness, employment and economic stability as well as our ability to survive in a more sustainable world. We would like to see skills policy in the UK focus on this objective. It’s not enough to encourage innovation and skills per se – in fact some skills (eg the skill of marketing cheap plastic imports) take us backward from a sustainability point of view. We need to make sure that skills and innovation are directed towards the specific objective of building a sustainable economy (i.e. one that produces prosperity and opportunity for all without exceeding environmental limits).
Links
» Defra report (2008) on skills for a low-carbon economy
» Building a low carbon economy: unlocking innovation and skills (Government response to CEMEP)
